1st Stop... Panama City

By: Jacob Glass

By KAVU

April 28^th, 2020

Sometimes, the chance escapades that occur while pursuing a larger goal make for absorbing experiences and long-lasting memories. Such was the case when three paragliding buddies and I shared a ten hour layover in Panama City, Panama on our way down to the renown flying destination that is the Valle de Cauca in southwestern Colombia.

Stateside, on the day of our departure, we rallied around town collecting the ragtag team and headed for the local airport. The chatter revolved around who could claim the bragging rights for the lightest luggage. Having used 48.6 lbs of the allotted 50, I did not stand much of a chance of taking home the trophy.

We checked our bags, uttered a small prayer that we would see them three flights later, and boarded the first plane. The fun of air travel with good friends permeated the cabin, as well as quips and digs that maybe should not have been floated in a public space.

What can we say? We were in a good mood and ON OUR WAY!

Watch out world! We're on our way!

After a quick dinner at the Denver International Airport, the four of us took a red eye to Panama City, during which I may have managed a total of 48 minutes of sleep. Nevertheless, I fortified my resolve, brushed off the deep fatigue, wrote that we would return in ten hours on the custom forms, and jumped in the taxi with the squad.

Time to KAVU Diem!

None of us had been to this Central American metropolis before, so we marveled at the sights from the car on the way to Casco Viejo (the old city). Towering skyscrapers, luxury hotels, and endless shopping opportunities confirmed the driver’s comments that this was hub for banking and commerce. What I found most fascinating, between intermediate moments of nodding off in the passenger seat, was the road we were driving on. It was a raised highway called the “Corredor Sur” that travels over sections of the coastal waters of the Pacific that flank the city to the south. As we wrapped around the modern city scape on the way to explore the colonial district, we looked down upon the lapping waves and realized that we certainly were no longer in the Frozen North.

Adjusting our watches to heat-o’clock!

We rolled into the the Casco Viejo neighborhood just prior to 7 A.M., and the first thing we noticed was that we were definitely in the tropics! The sun had barely risen, but a humid, strong heat was already sapping the energy from these Rocky Mountain wayfarers.

We took refuge in the one cafe open before 8 A.M. and munched on some goods before heading back into the sultry morning.

The buildings that lined the streets were colorful, architecturally very different than from our part of the world, and in varying states of repair. Expansive wrap-around porches and large wooden doors propped open have for centuries advantaged the residents to enjoy the sea breeze as comfort from the same heat the taxed us now. We stepped inside the Iglesia de La Merced, a church built around 1680, trying to see what words of Spanish mass our tired brains could make out. The ornate interior was impressive, and cool temperature was a blessing.

We sauntered to and fro, watching the district slowly prepare itself to greet another day. Custodial city workers picked up trash. Shopkeepers readied their store fronts. An elderly couple fed a horde of a dozen stray cats. Those stray cats gorged themselves and then basked in the eagerly rising sun.

Starting this new day in a foreign land with friends hinted that this trip was going to be superlative. :)

After our time in Casco Viejo, we were back in another taxi heading to see the engineering wonder that is synonymous with the city’s modern prosperity: the Panama Canal. Traveling away from the city center and arriving to a sprawling industrial zone, we ascended to the fourth floor of a large building.

There, we found an open-air observation deck for visitors to observe as the ships made their way through the canal. From the informational placards, we learned that we looking at one of three lock systems.

What Happens.....

A boat enters a lock from the west, the walls close, water from the higher elevation lock gravitationally feeds the lower lock, and the boat rises so that it may continue on its way.

Cog vehicles manage the ropes of the ship during its progress so that it does not hit the walls. While conceptually we had all learned this in grade school, seeing it in person knocked our socks off! Hands down this was one of the neatest feats of engineering I had ever seen.

With the two hours that we had left, we decided to have lunch out on the Amador Causeway. This is a road connecting a string of four islands from the mainland out into the Pacific entrance to the Canal.

The foundation of this road is composed of the sentiment removed during the dredging of the Canal. Long winged sea birds were soaring the high wind colliding with the islands’ hillsides. Several masts of boats sunken during past stormed poked out of the azure waters. Families and individuals biked, ran, and strolled along the pedestrian paths between the islands. We feasted on seafood, and then the exhaustion hit us again. Each one of us at some point slept during the final taxi ride back to the airport.

Undoubtedly, we carped that Diem.

Pure delight infected as we each saw our bag arrive at the carousel in the airport of Pereira, Colombia. Is there a greater joy while traveling than having the planes leave on time and your baggage meet you at your final destination? In the twenty-six hours from Missoula to the hotel in Colombia, I slept for maybe three hours in total. Was the little package on my pillow soap or chocolate? Turns out that it was soap, but didn’t taste too bad.